AIsoy1 is a programmable emotional pet robot kit which can learn based on interactions, recognize faces, make decisions and talk with people completely autonomously. Now at its third generation, the fully open source AISoy1 is driven by a Raspberry Pi running Linux, and constitutes a very affordable yet powerful development platform for social robotics applications, which is well connected and allows for easy integration into the ROS ecosystem.
The AIsoy1 robot was created by Spanish company AISoy Robotics and is available in several types of kits. It comes either fully assembled, and with all software pre-installed so users can start interacting with it right out of the box, or in DIY form, where it can be assembled and customized from the very beginning. The AISoy1 robotic kit is delivered with the Raspjet — a jetpack module holding the Raspberry Pi, cables, power pack, SD memory card with required software and WiFi dongle.
You can also choose to buy the robot standalone, since software has been optimized to be run on several compatible single board computers (SBC), like the BeagleBone Black for instance. You can even install and run the software on your desktop PC and control the AISoy1 robot by connecting it to the USB port.
Complete software and SDK are available online, backed by a well established community, so developers can add interesting features to the robot by creating applications emphatically named botapps. The software is connected and fully compatible with ROS, allowing the robot to communicate to other very popular robots such as NAO, and creating virtually endless development possibilities for the robot.
The AIsoy robotic development platform is well suited for developers of all levels of experience, it can be a perfect gift for kids, which could develop very early interest in robotics, or for seasoned roboticists who want to develop advanced features for the robot. Visual environments, such as web-based AIDIA or Scratch could be used for developing applications, as well as C++ or Python for advanced programming.
The robot is unique in the way that there are no predefined answers or actions programmed into it. The robot harvests information about the environment from its array of sensors and camera, which is then interpreted based only on algorithms comprised in the Airos1 emotional engine. Response actions are then generated completely dynamically, making every interaction unique. Award winning ChatScript has been integrated as the main dialogue engine, with cloud based and offline text-to-speech and speech recognition software, such as Nuance or Festival being employed. The amazing Ivona engine is used for multi language speech.
The robot can also learn based on past interactions, thus every AISoy1 robot has the ability to develop its own personality, bringing it very similar in behavior to a living being.
Specifications and pricing
Dimensions
- Height x Width x Depth: 22.3 x 16.3 x 15.6 cm
- Weight: 1.5 kg
Raspberry Pi model B
Raspjet pack
- Raspberry Pi model B — 700 MHz ARM11 SoC, 512 MB SDRAM
- Onboard USB, Ethernet, HDMI, analog AV, HDMI, 26 pin expansion slot, SD card slot
- 8GB SD card with software
- NiMH 7.2V 2.4Ah battery
- USB WiFi 802.11n dongle
- Cables (power, audio, USB), case, accessories
Sensors and actuators
- 3-axis accelerometer, capacitive touch sensors, overcurrent force sensors
- 2MP camera
- Microphone and speaker
- Temperature and ambient light sensors
- 3 micro servos for neck, eyelids and eyebrows movement
- Multicolor LED arrays in mouth and chest areas
Software
- OS: Linux
- Core:
- Airos1 emotions engine for interpreting environment data and generating responses
- Artificial vision for face recognition
- Sensorimotor system for sensor and actuator management
- ChatScript engine for improving dialogues
- Text-to-speech and voice recognition: Nuance TTS, Nuance ASR, Festival TTS, PocketSphinx ASR, Ivona TTS
Pricing
The complete AIsoy1 ready to run robot kit is priced at a very friendly price of 210 Euro or about 280 US Dollars. The Raspjet pack alone is 100 Euro, while the standalone robot would cost about 150 Euro assembled, or 130 Euro as a DIY kit. A kit of two AIsoy1 robots can be bought at 400 Euro, a little over 540 US Dollars. Kits are available for sale at all major robotics retailers.
